Taboola expands mobile news reach with Start acquisition

Taboola has expanded its content recommendation network well beyond the widget at the bottom of a publishers’ articles that suggests reading content from elsewhere on the web. It’s next focus is delivering native content to more smartphones and their lockscreens.

The 11-year-old Israeli company, which is now headquarter in New York, announced today it is acquiring Start, from Celltick, a global leader in mobile discovery and engagement. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close by the end of March, were not disclosed.

Taboola News has already integrated with several mobile phone manufacturers including ZTE and Vivo to provides its news service on Android smartphones. This deal will expand Taboola News to support tier 1 mobile operators as well as device manufacturers and app developers, the company said.

According to the official spiel, Start Magazine is a content based engagement and monetisation platform that provides personalised and trending content from premium publishers.

Adam Singolda, CEO and founder of Taboola

Each month, more than 20 million users turn on their device enabled with the Start lockscreen and an additional 25 million are exposed to Start Magazine content, the company said.

“Our team has developed world-class products that have been adopted by 50 mobile operators and device manufacturers around the world that are being used by tens of millions of users every month,” said Ronen Daniel, CEO and co-founder of Celltick.

“We have reached a point that requires substantial investment to take the product to the next level and I trust that thanks to the deal with Taboola, the products will continue to grow and prosper for the benefit of our customers and the team.”

Adam Singolda, CEO and founder of Taboola said, “Celltick’s Start technology has been used by leading mobile carriers and now together we can provide an even more valuable platform for operators globally that can deliver a more engaged and personalised experience for their users and drive incremental ARPU. I am excited to welcome the Celltick team to Taboola.”

The Author

Tess Bennett

Tess Bennett is the editor of Which-50 and is responsible for leading the publication’s daily coverage of Australia's digital businesses for C-Suite executives, strategists, founders and directors. As the former editor of Internet Retailing Australia and journalist for Inside Retail, Tess has five years experience covering retail and ecommerce. At Which-50 Tess reports on a broad range of topics including technology, the industrial internet, analytics and digital marketing.

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